Why I sacked my cleaner

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Earlier this year I employed a cleaner to come and clean our house once a fortnight.  I was desperate.  I couldn't get my head around cleaning on top of coping with working four days a week and I was exhausted.  It seemed like an easy solution to a big problem.

But it wasn't the solution.  With seven people in our house there is just so much TIDYING to do.  It could be a full time occupation.  Cleaning proved to be the least of our worries.  Picking up all the stuff is massive.  Cleaning is not so massive.  Picking up all the stuff has to happen every day, or at least more often than once a fortnight.  Otherwise we could not open the front door and leave the house each morning.  Cleaning does not actually take all that much time (once the tidying is done).

So tidying up for the cleaner was proving to be a big stress and on a weekday morning when I was working, it just became a bit nightmarish.  Plus if most of the job is tidying, then the actual cleaning (in theory) could be done by the seven people who live in the house.  It's not like the kids are small anymore (although they are more sophisticated in their complaining and I'm less tolerant of the complaining after so many years of parenting).

The trick now is to be diligent in finding a time (and the energy to motivate the troops) when we all tidy up and clean each week.

Comments

Karen said…
Glad you shared this. I have often heard people say they have to "tidy up" to get ready for the cleaner to come, and to me it just sounded like another added pressure.
I agree that when all the stuff is removed from the floor and put back where it belongs, the actual cleaning bit takes no more than a couple of hours. Although I find you do need to add a lot more time to that if you're trying to encourage the younger members of the household to assist with it...
June 26, 2012 at 8:22 PM
One for a wish.. said…
My MIL paid for a cleaner when I had my third bub and I came to a similar conclusion. I remember crying, with a screaming bub in arms, because this woman was arriving to clean a house that was horrendous after a week of family sickness, and I didn't know what to throw in cupboards first.
So I got an ironing lady instead...suits me much better!
July 12, 2012 at 10:45 PM
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